Is there an active "Church of Baal" ?? Where do I sign up???
Posts by kid-A
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73Gilead students told...other JWs are a bunch of slackers!
by sir82 inmore blessings from the gilead instructors.... "it was brought out that christendom and the world smacks of .
baalism today.
sad to say, like the israelites sometimes even jehovah's .
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"The Truth" about Higher Education
by Ozner ini am a longtime witness (35 years), born "in the truth" and raised up in the 70's.
higher education.
at that time, i agreed with it.
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kid-A
I would agree the borg should fear the drones going to university, nothing compares to a university education in terms of developing critical faculties and analytical reasoning. However, although I did go to university and went all the way with my education, I had decided by the age of 14 that this was all bogus. In high school I read Freud and Nietzsche and that completely liberated my mind, long before I ever had my first university lecture. Similarly, I know many people that questioned the dogma and escaped never having gone to university while several dubs that did go to university (including relatives) certainly were able to maintain their "faith" (i.e. brainwashing). The point is, I dont think the borg fears the psychological effects of university education so much as the economic impact of having their youngest, most energetic publishers devoted to school instead of peddling the magazines (by the way, is this honestly still the major source of revenue for the WTS?) Regardless, in many ways, I think the people that are going to eventually escape KNOW they are going to get out at a very early age.....I honestly think that religiosity and the likelihood of remaining a loyal drone is an in-born trait, possible with a genetic component and a natural, in-born tendency towards magical thinking and superstition. Think I will do a med-line search on this!
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Video Highlights from the Drama!
by CaptainSchmideo inwarning!
it helps to be under the influence to watch this stuff.
actually, it might enhance the experience to toke a little doob while watching.
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kid-A
I have not been to one of these drone festivals in about a decade but its incredible how nothing at all has changed. Watching this reminds me of a north korean propaganda film from the 1950s. I pity the poor children born into the borg who through no fault of their own will suffer deep indoctrination, but adults who willingly swallow this mindless drivel...no excuses at all. I would expect more intelligent dialogue from a lobotomy patient. The sound of those voices transmitted over the loudspeakers, reverberating through that stadium, brings back such vivid memories of sitting in those horrid plastic chairs for 8 hours a day in the stifling humidity......oh freedom is sweet!!!!!!!!!
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130 years of preaching has failed.
by joelbear ineven in the us where the preaching work has been going on longest and most widespread, very few people have any idea what the message of the watchtower society or jehovah's witnesses is.
their methodology is flawed.
selling books and magazines that are rarely read sporadically to people doesn't deliver this message.
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kid-A
Absolutely. I remember knowing kids that actually "had fun" going to church....youth groups, summer camps, cook-outs, etc. They of course also had the fun of x-mas, easter, halloween, b-days (i.e. a normal life) all of which we were denied. All I recall as a dub-kid was the occasional congregation get-together comprised of a group of guarded people watching what they said, sanitized conversations, lobotomized kingdumb-melody sing-alongs (the horror....the horror....). Although I have no use for religion at all, I am still impressed by the seemingly normal activities that other mainstream churches seem to promote and encourage, particularly social events, x-mas pageants, picnics, etc. But you are right...shouldnt be giving them any ideas for more successful propagation of their borg mind virus!
cheers
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130 years of preaching has failed.
by joelbear ineven in the us where the preaching work has been going on longest and most widespread, very few people have any idea what the message of the watchtower society or jehovah's witnesses is.
their methodology is flawed.
selling books and magazines that are rarely read sporadically to people doesn't deliver this message.
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kid-A
I would agree that considered in totality, it has been an utter failure. In North America and most European countries, the dubs are considered not much more than saturday morning annoyances. I predict, however, that the borg will continue to attract and expand in developing 3rd world countries, following a growth pattern similar to the catholic church: dwindling membership and attendance in Europe and North America, with the occasional spike following any future disasters (e.g. 9-11). What is so striking is the utter failure of this multi-billion dollar conglomerate to exploit new technologies to get out their propaganda. Why not TV commercials like the LDS? Why not branch out into televangelism? That they would insist on such a pitifully inefficient means of preaching, (I mean, I cant even remember the number of times I was dragged out door bangin with the parents and not finding a SINGLE person home on a street!). Theres just very little appeal for this apocalyptic message to the affluent, as my mom used to say after being to bugger off by some "wealthy" householders: "Well I guess they are enjoying their paradise now! Just wait til armageddon!"......................oi vay.............
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Being a post atheist
by Bas insmall summary of my spiritual state/development:.
post atheist to me means i don't even find the question if there is a god important enough to lable myself as someone who doesn't believe in it, it means i actually find the whole question irrelevant, discussing it is irrelevant (trying to prove god doesn't exist is just futile), i just don't believe it, and leaving it behind me.... as for how the world works, i'm a determinist and i like to lable myself that though i don't really believe in lableing either.
determinism is great for understanding things/world/nature/people but a pain as a practicle filosophy to make decisions by, kind of paralysing... in daily life i believe in balance in all things, giving and receiving, working and resting, socialising and taking time for myself, and other things besides that.
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kid-A
Thank you for the welcome, Tetrapod. I always enjoy your posts. I do agree that the term "atheist" serves (at least for me) as a convenient descriptor, regardless of its inherent semantic/logical conumdrums. You are right, "agnostic" as a label and "agnosticism" as a mode of thinking about religion/god etc is indeed a more empirical approach to the problem of terminology. As a hardcore biologist and evolutionist, I am naturally biased against any sort of hocus pocus, but clearly the use of the term "agnostic" simply as a means of admitting "I dont know" is a more logical approach. I agree with you though, I do find it to be hand waving and a sort of learned helplessness to hear people say "well I just dont know if there is a god" because in my personal experience, I have found that this sort of thinking leads to apathy and clinging to religious delusions rather than simply walking away. I am in research, so I guess I am always biased towards arriving at an empirically derived (albeit conditional) result in order to support my hypotheses (null hypothesis or otherwise!)
cheers
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Does the organization issue local 'apostate' warnings to BOE's?
by AK - Jeff ini mean if brooklyn became aware, due to calls or letters from an unidentified opposer, do they issue a letter to local bodies of elders warning that a person in their area is an 'active apostate'?
thus giving the elders a 'heads up', perhaps alerting the cong thru local needs parts, and private conversation?
or does brooklyn do little or nothing and let the locals deal with it only if they see problems?.
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kid-A
In Toronto at least, the locations of apostates were certainly known and marked in the territory directories. These addresses were marked in the field map records and completely avoided by the dubs, but that was a long long time ago....maybe they dont do that anymore.
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I want to let you know....
by RichieRich inat least 2 or three times a week, i get a pm from someone that sounds similar to this:hello richie, .
i just read your recnt post from the assembly.
appears you've no concern about being located?
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kid-A
Richie,
I salute you. I was mentally free by the age of 14, but would never have had the guts to do what you do. I quietly endured 'keeping up appearances" until I moved out, went to University, got my bachelors and PhD and the rest is history...in the end, you are going to be the victor. Dont let their gestapo tactics intimidate (although I doubt there is anything that would intimidate somebody of your character and fortitude). More importantly, you are an incredible inspiration to young people who have seen through the mind control and web of lies of the borg and are looking for the courage to escape. Cheers and keep up the awesome undercover work!
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** Carey Barber, GB Member approaches 100. **
by truthseeker incarey barber, born july 4th 1905 has almost made his century.
fred franz came close at 99 years old, and he died around 1992.. so what does bro barr get for his 100th birthday?
forget it - to him, turning 100 is "just another day.
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kid-A
I remember being about 11 yrs old at the Norval assembly hall in ontario and meeting Fred Franz. He must have been well into his 90s and was nearly totally blind. I was waiting backstage for some gawd-awful symposium I was going to be in and Fred had just finished his bombastic Goebbels speech, and I remember all the adults I was with being so excited that this crotchety old guy (the Simpsons Mr Burns would be the most appropriate comparison) was up on stage, speaking without notes and the possibility that he would brush past them backstage....it really was a cult of celebrity for this guy, incredible.
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Being a post atheist
by Bas insmall summary of my spiritual state/development:.
post atheist to me means i don't even find the question if there is a god important enough to lable myself as someone who doesn't believe in it, it means i actually find the whole question irrelevant, discussing it is irrelevant (trying to prove god doesn't exist is just futile), i just don't believe it, and leaving it behind me.... as for how the world works, i'm a determinist and i like to lable myself that though i don't really believe in lableing either.
determinism is great for understanding things/world/nature/people but a pain as a practicle filosophy to make decisions by, kind of paralysing... in daily life i believe in balance in all things, giving and receiving, working and resting, socialising and taking time for myself, and other things besides that.
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kid-A
Very interesting topic. I have also had some semantic difficulties with the term "atheist". I categorically deny the existence of a "god" in any religious sense (or in any supernatural mode, for that matter!) but to me, the term "atheist" presupposes that there is actually something to deny, which seems like a logical contradiction. I have considered the term "Pre-Deist" with the underlying assumption that 1) the whole concept of a deity is a socially imposed psychological construct artifically placed in the mind by conditioning thus to be "Pre-Deist" simply means a wishful return to a pre-conditioned "god-free" state of mind, and does not necessitate the active denial of a pre-existing, artificially place mental construct. But all in all, I guess "atheist" seems to have more universal cachet. Ah the joys of semantic adventures.